AK & Related Rifles

Video: Zastava M91 7.62x54R Sniper Rifle and also Inside the Zatava M91 by Graham Baates

I find the Zasatav designated marksman rifles (DMRs) very interesting.  I own a M77 in 7.62×51 currrently and its sibling, the M91 in 7.62x54r, looks very intriguing with its folding stock.  Here, we don’t always get the really interesting 7.62x54r, but if you are in Russia or other parts of Europe, you have a ton of different loads available.  I have a 7.62x54r Vepr and it is a very capable rifle.

At any rate, Graham Baates travelled to Kragujevac, Serbia, with his wife and they posted a video of their great opportunity to actually test fire a M91 at Zastava.

He also did a second video called “Inside the Zastava M91 Sniper Rifle” that is next:

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Air & C02 Rifles and Pistols

Hill Mk4 High-Pressure Air Pump for PCP Air Guns – Very slick and very do-able for guys wanting to get into PCP air guns

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Well folks, I am taking the plunge into pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) air rifles.  These are the airguns you see (both pistols and rifles) than have a high pressure air tank to propel the pellet.  Now, I had to think long and hard about this.  I live in a rural area and there aren’t any SCUBA/dive shops in my backyard to fill an intermediary air tank to then fill the rifle.  I looked into high pressure air compressors (we’re talking 3-4,000 PSI here so this isn’t your average shop compressor) and the starting cost for the cheapest is about $1,100 and in the cost of the tank and the fittings and I was dead in the water.

Recently, I did more digging about hand air pumps.  I had heard and read a few things about what a pain they are to work with and it turns out that is either flat out wrong or you bought a bad one.  Now everyone is different.  I’m 5′ 8″ and about 22o pounds plus not in that great of shape if I am to be completely hones so I paid close attention to what folks said and how they described their physical condition.  Bottom line is that there are a ton of people out there using hand pumps.

So, I switched gears and started reading more about the various brands, the reviews they got, etc.  From what I gathered, it came down to two pumps at the front of the pack – the Air Venturi G6 or the Hill Mk4.  I then went around the forums, Amazon, Pyramyd Air and Air Depot reading comments, etc.  Frankly, the Hill Mk4 gets better reviews plus it has an air dryer.  Given how compressed air systems constantly produce water via condensation, I was sold.  I ordered my Mk4 from Air Depot.  For years, I have ordered from Pyramyd Air but Air Depot has great reviews and they had a great deal going for 10% off and free shipping when I ordered it.

Air Depot’s shipped the pump the same day via FedEx Ground and it arrived three days later.  It was partially disassembled and I’d say it took about 10 minutes to put it together.  I actually followed the directions and be sure to use wrenches on all fittings due to the air pressure.  It comes with a small tube of silicone grease and I went ahead and lubed the shaft just to make sure it was ready – they recommend monitoring that.

At the same time I bought the Hill, I bought a Hatsan Gladius Long bullpup in .22.  I’ll write about the Gladius more later but it came with the fill probe to screw onto the Hill’s male threaded end fitting.  I used wrenches to tighten things down really well, put the Gladius’ air cyliner in a cardboard box to cradle it so I could then pump air in.  The hose on the Hill is really short and I suspect it is because you need to pump and pressurize that hose also before the check valve in the Gladius’ air cylinder will open and let air in.

We sell replacement O-rings and covers to keep your fill probe clean. Click here to learn more.

It does take effort as you reach 200 bar (that’s 2900 PSI).  The trick is to go slow and use your body weight to drive the handle down – not your arm muscles.  I’d bend my knees with my arms locked and down I went.  Don’t use your arms – let your weight do the work and speaking for myself, I have plenty of fat … I mean weight 🙂

Yes, it would take a real long time to fill the rifle if I let the cylinder go down to zero but the trick is to shoot a few rounds and keep the rifle in its ideal operating pressure range and refill when you get low — or shoot a few and top if off again.  For example, with my Gladius, after six shots on power setting three, it then takes 30 pumps to take it back up to 200 bar – it’s not that hard – really.  Why six shots?  Well, the pressure was still in the green just now but towards the bottom so I topped it off and counted just to write this post.

To remove the pump from the cylinder, you unscrew a bleed valve knob on the back of the pump to relieve the pressure in the line.  Do NOT try to remove the probe before the pressure is released.

The only con I have is that I wish that fill hose was a bit longer but I bet another guy would then say he wished it was shorter.  The reason I’d like it longer is so I could lean my rifle against some thing and pump.  I can’t do that today because the hose is too short.  I’ll probably build a cradle for the rifle at some point vs. unscrewing the cylinder (and it was designed for that which is really cool by the way) and filling it.

I have a Huma regulator on order for the Gladius and will try it and write more about both the rifle and the regulator down the road.  The purpose of this post is to recommend the Hill Mk4 pump and to clearly tell you that a hand pump absolutely can get you started in the world of PCP airguns.  In fact, I’m kind of embarrassed that I held off due to hearsay until now and want to clear up the misinformation – a pump can definitely get you started.  In fact, I do plan on getting a compressor some day but I am in no rush now.

January 25, 2018 Update:  The pump is still going strong.  I have topped off my Gladius  at least 30-40 times – I try to keep the pressure between 160-190 bar – every time the 10 round mag is empty or running low, I top the gun off and add pellets.  I just did a bit of preventive maintenance and applied silicone grease to the shaft of the pump and the fill probe.  I am still very happy and recommend this pump.

September 24, 2018 Update:  Still no problems.  I can’t begin to guess how many times I have topped off my Gladius now.  I did grease the shaft again just to be safe.  I also keep a very light film on the fill probe and keep the probe wrapped in a plastic bag when not in use to keep dirt off it.  I shoot two magazines (20 rounds) and then top off.  It’s as simple as that.

February 10, 2020 Update:  Had one of the O-rings on the fill tube fail and had to replace it a few months ago.  Am keeping the probe and pump shaft lubricated with silicone grease.

6/29/2020 Update: Still very happy with the Hill. We now have replacement fill-probe O-rings and caps to keep your fill probe clean. Click here to learn more.

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Shooting in General

The MTM K-Zone Shooting Rest is Pretty Good – Add Weight To It!

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Okay folks, I needed an inexpensive portable shooting rest that supported the front of a back and a rifle to keep in my shop.  I dug around a bit and found the MTM K-Zone Shooting Rest on Amazon.  It had 4.5 stars with 480 reviews.  I knew it would be plastic so some of the reviews that called it light duty didn’t bother me.  At any rate, for $39.99 and Prime shipping, I went ahead and ordered it.  

It arrived a week ago and I took it out of the box immediately noticing that some assembly was required and then the included pieces caught my eye.  I noticed that a lot of the major parts were in halves and unscrewed.

 

At first I thought they were saving money and were pushing some of the labor onto they buyer.  I actually opened the instructions and immediately saw that they had left it this way for people to fill the voids with bird shot to make it heavier – YES!!!!!!!  I was all over it like hens on bugs.  I had a bunch of 7 shot in containers that I then 3/4 filled the various voids leaving room for plastic on the top.

 

 

A perk of having a gun parts business that makes plastic furniture via compression casting is that you have gallons of liquid plastic!!  I mixed some up, added just a touch of black dye for giggles and poured it in on top of the shot thus sealing everything up nice and sound – no irritating rattling.  Now, if you don’t have plastic laying around, you could mix up epoxy or Bondo and have very similar results.

Once the plastic cured, I then used the included screws to put everything together.  It’s pretty straight  forward with easy instructions to assemble it.  I used the rest this morning and it was nice and solid.  Sure, it’s made from plastic but it ought to work just fine for what I need.  If you are looking for a nice basic rest, check this out.  By the way, one nice feature is that you can pull the buttstock extension out and just use the front portion as a handgun rest.  Pretty cool.

 

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AK & Related Rifles

Video: Infantry Weapons of Yugoslavia 1924 – 1999

     

This video covers handguns, rifles, submachine guns, light machine guns and so forth used by Yugoslavia from 1924 to 1999.  It does not have anyone talking, just music.  What it does have that is interesting is tons of photos of various weapons and in some cases even footage showing use.  I watched in interest the parts with the AK-related rifles such as the M70, M72, M85, M92 and so on plus the M93 Black Arrow that I’ve always found interesting.  I got to hold and inspect one at Ohio Rapid Fire years ago.

At any rate, it’s interesting and worth 28 minutes to watch what the author assembled:

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Flashlights and Lasers

If you want to upgrade your older 4-6 D cell Mag-Lite, be very cautious about the Terralux TLE-310M-EX MiniStar 1000 Lumen Conversion Kit

Hi folks,

I actually buy what I post about so if something doesn’t work, I’m going to report it.  In 2015, I upgraded my three Mag-Lites with TerraLUX TLE-6EX Ministar5 140 Lumen LEDs.  Those have worked great – they are bright, durable, and easy on the batteries.  A few weeks back, I ran across an Amazon listing for a TerraLUX TLE-310M-EX Ministar31M-EX LED Conversion kit for 4-6 D cell Maglites.  Now that kind of excited me – 1,000 claimed lumens plus I had good luck with their bulb replacements so the upgrade kit seemed like a no brainer.  Unfortunately, I was not so lucky this time because it did not fit either my four or five D-cell lights.

The conversion kit looks well made and is super easy to install — or at least it should be if it will fit the head of your light:

To be fair to TerraLUX, my 4-D cell Mag-Lite dates back to the early- to mid-1980s.  My 5-D cell was bought by my dad for his own use shortly there after.  The 3-D cell I have was bought by my dad at an unknown time.  I just want to point out right up front these are older lights.  To get to the point, the TLE-310M only fit the 3-D cell the way it should but it was not recommended for that few of cells plus was not as bright.

My best guess is that Mag-Lite evolved the shape of the flashlight’s heads over the years.  My 4-D cell’s head actually is curved inside behind the reflector.  The 5-D cell is flat inside.  The 3-D is flat inside too but it look like the stem that holds the bulb sticks up further.  When I screwed the TLE-301M straight onto the bulb stem, WOW.  On my 5-D cell, my Lux meter could not go up that high.  The problem is that the kit would not fit with the head on the way it should.  I suspect the positive contact on the bottom of the kit could not touch the Mag-Lite’s positive contact.

Here’s the 5-D cell taken apart with the conversion kit.  Normally to install the kit, you would just remove the bezel, lens, reflector and bulb.  The kit then screws in place of the bulb.  I had it all apart trying to figure out what was going on.

At this point I was getting a bit miffed.  I did not take a picture of my 4-D cell taken apart but it definitely had a conical shape under the reflector and the kit again would not make contact with the head in place.  if I screwed the kit right on to the stem, it was fine but no-go with the head on.  Note, they say to turn the head for the kit and positive contact to come together – that did not work on either the four or five cell lights no matter how firmly I turned the head.

Here is my 3-D light.  Look at how far the stem is sticking up with the head on! Sure enough the kit installed just fine on that light *but* it had fewer cells than recommended and it negatively impacted the brightness.

Here is the light output measured before (60,500 Lux because the meter is set to the x100 Lux range) and after (119,800 Lux) on the 3-D cell light:

So it did almost double the light out the front but not enough for me to want to spend $50.  When I did the test with the 5D cell with just the conversion kit screwed straight onto the stem with no head, the output exceeded the meter’s 200,000 Lux limit.  Wow – it was bright.  I sure wish it would have fit.

The one plus out of all this is that I did discover my 3-D cell’s light needed a bit of silicone grease on the threads to turn smoother and it had an old plastic lens that I upgraded to clear glass unit from Neutek:

Bottom line, I returned it the conversion kit to Amazon.  I feel TerraLux should have known it wouldn’t fit all lights — shouldn’t they?  So, if you have an older Maglite (say 1980s or 90s), stick with the single bulb upgrade to LED (the TerraLUX TLE-6EX) and you’ll be a happy camper.  If you have a newer Mag-Lite, you may be okay but I do not know that for sure.

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This is the conversion kit you should be cautious about in terms of fitting an older light – the quality looked very good:

The single LED unit listed below is in use in all three of my 80s/90s Mag-Lites and works great.  No problems yet of any kind!

7/20/19 Update:  The TerraLUX Ministar 5 TLE-6EX-CNC LEDs are still working great in my lights.  They have survived multiple winters, bouncing around in vehicles, camping, etc.  I’m very happy with them.  Definitely upgrade your lens as well with the unit above.

2/19/20 Update:  Still no problems.

 

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AK & Related Rifles

Video: How the SVD Dragunov Works Using 3D Animation. — Pretty cool!!

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I love computer animations that show how a firearm’s action operates.  This video on the SVD Dagunov is narrated in Russian but you can definitely see how the gasses flow and hit the piston, push the operating rod back, and then operate the bolt and trigger.  I think videos like this provide valuable insight into what all is going on.

This one is very detailed and fascinating.  Definitely worth watching!

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Tools

How to read engine codes Via the OBD II Port with your smart phone – welcome to the new age

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Guys, I remember tuning a car by ear with a timing light, vacuum gauge, feeling things out literally with my hands and so forth.  Boy has the world changed.  As the vehicles got smarter and smarter, someone decided to add On-Board Diagnostics (OBD) in the early 1980s first with the idiot “check engine” light and then it got more and more involved.  Modern cars and trucks in the US have an OBD II jack where you can plug in, read and clear fault codes, access real-time information and so forth.

Back in 2013 I saved my pennies and finally bought my own Autel Autolink Scanner for $102.  Wow – I thought was so cool.  I used it whenever fault codes popped up to figure out what it was but I had to lug the thing around and it wasn’t something you could readily update, etc.

A friend of mine came over about a year back to check on one of our cars.  He pulled a little black rectangle out of his jacket, plugged it into the car and then started looking at his phone.  I asked him what he was doing and he showed me that he was accessing the codes.  I was floored.

In June 2016, I decided to go the phone route to have a current scanner and a better interface.  After digging, I bought a BAFX Products 34t5 Bluetooth OBDII adapter for Android phones (about $22)  and I got the Torque software for my Samsung Note Android phone off the Google Play store for free.  What a difference.  The BAFX adapter was easy to carry around, I could customize the gauges I was looking at, and so forth.  For me this combo rocks.  It does all I need.  I really like it being cordless – you can walk around and so forth and still see the data.

By the way, installation is simple.  You follow the instructions to pair the scanner to your phone just like you would any other Bluetooth Device.  I downloaded Torque from the Google Play store on my phone in a matter of minutes and it is pretty much good to go.  You can create profiles for different vehicles in the software, change gauges you want to watch, their style, how they are grouped and so forth.

The following are screenshots from my phone plus you can see the little adapter that is a bit smaller than a cigarette box.

I use Torque to read and reset the ODB2 codes as needed. I really like it.
The Torque app lets you set up different gauges or even go in and look at the data.

  

This plugs into the ODB2 port

For example, my 2002 Camry’s check engine light is on and I could use the BAFX adapter and Torque to find out what the code was and then search using Google to decide what to do:

Yeah, you have to love that check engine light.

 

I really like the combination and recommend them.  In general, I am amazed by all the functionality that is showing up where the smart phone provides the brain and display thus dropping costs dramatically.  My recent GiraffeCam endoscope is another example.

By the way, I am so happy with this combination of BAFX scanner and Torque software that I sold my Autel scanner on eBay.

9/.29/21 Update: I still have the original two. They have saved my bacon many times and I always take one with us on trips. I highly recommend them. They have bounced around in the glove box, in the console, baked in the summer heat and frozen in subzero weather and they still work.

2/27/20 Update:  I now have a couple of them and use them all the time with Torque.

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Uncategorized

Check out John B’s cool Vepr with our handguard

I think John built a real stunner here. I like the whole package with the folding stock, the optic, our handguard and everything being black.

 

 

Click here to open a new tab/window to our Vepr handguard page.

 

When Strength and Quality Matter Most